Constraints on strategy : the economics of Western security /

Continuation of East/West tensions is taken for granted in this study of strategic objectives. Indeed, it is supposed that the Warsaw Pact countries will continue to increase their defense expenditures, and that the US and its allies will need to match these efforts in order to preserve our security. Given these assumptions, the authors applaud the buildup of defense spending under the Reagan administration, and they express confidence that the US could sustain this defense burden in the years ahead. Unfortunately, the US's principal NATO allies, Britain, France, and West Germany, will not be able to honor commitments to increase military expenditures; thus, the US may need to look toward containment of Soviet interests in the Pacific area in collaboration with Japan and South Korea. Readers who subscribe to the strategic views endorsed in this book will find it to be persuasively argued and well documented. Others may consider that the authors try a little too hard to convince themselves that the US can maintain high levels of defense spending without causing harmful effects on economic growth or on the US standard of living. Should interest upper-division and graduate students in international studies and economics.-G.T. Potter, Ramapo College of New Jersey